Aldbar Chapel
Burial Ground (Medieval), Chapel (Medieval), Church (Medieval), Mausoleum (19th Century)
Site Name Aldbar Chapel
Classification Burial Ground (Medieval), Chapel (Medieval), Church (Medieval), Mausoleum (19th Century)
Canmore ID 34786
Site Number NO55NE 8
NGR NO 57311 58219
NGR Description NO 57311 58219 and NO 5732 5821
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/34786
- Council Angus
- Parish Aberlemno
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District Angus
- Former County Angus
NO55NE 8 57311 58219 and 5732 5821
(NO 5732 5821) Chapel (Private) on Site of Aldbar Chapel (NR)
(NO 5733 5821) Cross Stone (NR) (Site of)
OS 6" map, Forfarshire and Angus, 2nd ed., (1927)
For Aldbar Castle and associated sites, see NO55NE 9.00.
A rector of Aldbar is recorded in 1429 and in 1433 the church was granted to the College of Methven. The chapel had long been ruinous until restored by the late Mr Chalmers (c. 1850) who not only preserved the exact dimensions of the building, but also used the old stones as far as possible, thereby preserving much of its ancient character. In 1903, two sculptured stones are recorded in the chapel. One, an upright cross slab, is said to have stood in the burial ground of the old chapel, while the other (now at Brechin Cathedral - see NO56SE 12) with the Virgin and Child upon it, is said to have been found at Brechin.
A Jervise 1861; J R Allen and J Anderson 1903.
Small oblong, rubble and slate. Rebuilt as mausoleum, second half 19th century re-using stonework of earlier building. (Historic Environment Scotland List Entry)
Field Visit (8 July 1958)
The mortuary chapel at Aldbar is wholly modern, although a few stones appear to have come from an early building. The cross slab is still in the chapel.
Visited by OS (JLD) 8 July 1958.
Photographic Survey (August 1964)
Photographic survey of the exterior and interior of Aldbar Castle and estate buildings, Angus, in 1964 prior to demolition of the castle.
Note (1984)
Aldbar, Church and Burial-ground NO 573 582 NO55NE 8
The church of Aldbar, which stood within its burial-ground in the Den of Aldbar 400m N of Mains, was ruinous before the middle of the 19th century, when its remains were incorporated in the mortuary chapel that now occupies the site. The church is on record in the 13th century and served the former parish of Aldbar until that parish was suppressed in the 17th century. A Class III Pictish cross-slab, which was removed from the burial-ground shortly before 1842, is in Brechin Cathedral.
RCAHMS 1984.
(NSA, xi, Forfar, 631-2; Stuart 1856, 25, pl. lxxxii; Jervise 1861, 300-2; Warden 1880-85, ii, 288-9, 293-4, 305; Allen and Anderson 1903, iii, 245-7; Cowan 1967, 11; RCAHMS 1983, p. 19, no. 139).
External Reference
R W Billings corresponded with Patrick Chalmers regarding the restoration of the chapel which he records as carried out in 1853 in correspondence held in the Blackwood Papers in the National Library of Scotland.
Note
For Pictish Cross Slab, see NO55NE 8.01 and NO56SE 22.01 (for present location in Bechin Cathedral).
